Astronomers worry Musk's Starlink could disrupt South Africa's mega-telescope observations

Business Insider

03-06-2025

Astronomers working with South Africa's SKA telescope are urging the government to ensure that any licensing deal with Elon Musk's Starlink includes protections for their sensitive astronomical research.
Astronomers in South Africa emphasize the need for protective measures in agreements involving SpaceX's Starlink to safeguard sensitive astronomical research.
A licensing deal with Starlink has attracted controversy, with its parent company advocating alternative compliance mechanisms to local ownership laws.
Concerns exist that Starlink's low-orbit satellites might interfere with operations of South Africa's SKA-Mid radio telescope.
Astronomers working with South Africa's SKA telescope are urging the government to ensure that any licensing deal with Elon Musk's Starlink includes protections for their sensitive astronomical research, according to a senior scientist.
Talks around Starlink's entry into South Africa have already sparked controversy. Parent company SpaceX has pushed back against local ownership laws, instead proposing equity equivalent initiatives as an alternative path to compliance.
Adding astronomy-related licensing conditions could further complicate efforts to bring Starlink to South Africa, where Musk already expressed concerns over the government's Black empowerment policies, Reuters reported.
While South African authorities have said they're open to reviewing rules in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, they remain firm on policies aimed at transforming the economy nearly 30 years after the end of white-minority rule.
Interference with the SKA telescope
Scientists worry that Starlink's low-orbit satellites could interfere with observations by South Africa's Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Mid), one of the world's most advanced radio telescopes, co-hosted with a similar array in Australia.
Di Vruno, spectrum manager at the SKA Observatory, said both his organization and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) are pushing for license conditions that would limit interference with critical observation frequencies used by the SKA-Mid telescope.
These conditions could require Starlink to either steer its satellite beams away from SKA receivers or pause transmissions for brief periods to minimize disruption, he explained.
The SKA's current array of antennas in Carnarvon, a remote town in South Africa's Northern Cape, operates within the 350 megahertz to 15.4 gigahertz frequency range, bandwidth also commonly used by satellite operators for downlinks.
South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor to the SKA-Mid and soon to be integrated into the larger Square Kilometre Array (SKA), has already delivered remarkable discoveries.
Among them is a rare giant radio galaxy that spans 32 times the size of the Milky Way. In another instance, it identified 49 new galaxies in under three hours, according to the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).